Safety device



March 26, 1940. sc

" SAFETY DEVICE Filed July 25, 1938 d 7J6?" Z77 ran/ar Patented Mar. 26,1940 i v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE some July :5, ms, Serial-No. mass mSultan-land my :1. 19:1

lCllhll- (Cl. ZOO-52) The present invention relates to an improvedmembers 8 electrically connected by said mercury electrical safetydevice for motor vehicles and n penetrating lh the bottom IQ of th moreparticularly to an improved automatic cir vessel 1 and the socket i, andforming outside cult breaker for use in ignition circuits of said twoplugs II which can be put into a plug bush 5 vehicles and adapted toautomatically break the inserted in the ignition circuit of a motorvehicle.

electrical circuit upon turning over of the vehicle Inside the vessel Iabove the level of the meror when the vehicle is tipped unduly orcollided cury is disposed a stopper formed by a plug I! with anobstacle. constituted by two disks perforated along their It is anobject of the invention to provide a rims in a manner that theperforation 13 of one circuit breaker so constructed as to form aherdisk is staggered with respect to the perforation 10 meticallyclosed, evacuated exterior vessel pro- H of the other disk. In this waythe mercury tecting the fluid conductor from oxidation and cannot leapout of the vessel 7 under the action permitting it to escape morequickly when the of trepidations or shocks to which the vehicle breakeris tilted sufficiently or inverted. is subjected, whereas, when owing toan accident 16 A further object of the invention is to provide thevehicle is overturning that the safety device v a breaker which can bere-set to operating concomes into horizontal or upside down position,dition simply by tilting the whole device upside the mercury can freelyescape through theperdown in a determined manner and, hence,turnforations i3 and it into the vessel 2, whereby the ihg it furtherinto its normal position without ignition circuit of the motor is cutoff.

go necessitating parts of the breaker to be substan- The chamber 5 ofthe vessel 2 is in communica- 20 tially removed or operated. tion withthe interior or the vessel 1 by a tube i5. V

A still further object of the invention is to We have seen that owing tothe overturning of afford a permanent controlling of the state of thevehicle in an accident, the mercury can leave the breaker as well as acontrolling of its rethe contact members 9 and escape into the vessel 35setting action. 2. This escape of the mercury could also happenAccording to these objects, the invention is by handling the device orwhen storing it. For concerned with the provision of a breaker wherethisreason the vessel 2 is divided in two superin the evacuated exteriorvessel is in form of a posed chambers 4 and 5 permitting to put the bulbdivided into an upper and a lower chamber safety device back again intoworking condition.

by means of a transverse partition, and wherein Indeed, if the device isoverturning (Fig. 3), the so the fluid conductor and the contacts aredisposed mercury is rimning into vessel 2. If this turning in aninterior vessel mounted within said lower is continued according to thearrow in Fig. 3 into chamber and carrying a plug through which it theupside down position (Fig. 4) the mercury communicates, on the one hand,with the lower is passing through the opening 6 of the partition chamberof the exterior vessel by means of per- 3 into the chamber 5. Afterwardsthe device 35 forations provided-in said plug, and, on the other mustonly be brought back according to the hand, with the upper chamber ofthe exterior arrows inFig.4 into the normal, vertical position vessel bymeans of a tube extending between said (Fig. 5). The mercury is in thechamber 5 and plug and the transverse partition. is then running throughthe tube i! into the o The drawing illustrates: vessel I containing thecontact members 9. An 0 Figure l is a vertical section along the centeredge It round the opening 6 prevents mercury line of the safety deviceshowing a preferred emfrom escaping back into the chamber 4. The

bodiment of the invention. safety device is thus again in workingcondition. Figure 2 is a section along the line 2-2 of It will bepreferable to prevent oxydation of Figure 1. the mercury by evacuatingthe vessel 2. A 45 Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the way how the device safetydevice can not only be disposed in the must be put back a a n nto o kondition ignition circuit of the motor but as well in other The safetydevice represented in the drawing electrical circuits of the motorvehicle, for in resembles outwardly to a bulb and comprises a stance,that of the head-lights or of the hooter.

so socket i wherein a hermetically closed vessel 2 is stopping alsothose apparatus in case of an fixed which is divided by a partition 8into two accident. superposed chambers 4 and 5 communicated 1 claims,through the openinz I in t e partition In the A circuit breaker of thecharacter described lower chamber of the vessel I is disposed a secondcomprising a, hermetically cloud exterior vessel It vesse 1 c tain ns meI an wo con adapted to be evacuated, a transverse partition mountedwithinsaid exterior vessel and dividing the same into an upper and alower chamber, said partition being provided with an openinz throughwhich said chambers communicate with each other, an interior vesselmounted within the lower chamber and containing the mercury and twocontacts normally immersed in said mercury, said interior vesselcarrying a plug through which it communicates, on the one hand, with thelower chamber or the exterior vessel by means of perforations providedin said plug, and, on the other hand, with the upper chamber of theexterior vessel by means or a tube extending between said plug and thetransverse partition, said plus heareas in: adapted to prevent \mduesplashing or ucapin: of the mercury when the vehicle is in motion whilepermitting the mercury to flow out into the exterior vessel therebybreaking the connection between the contacts when the breaker issubstantially inverted, whereby, in order to re-set the breaker. themercury spread in the exterior vessel can be collected in the upperchamber and led back through said tube into the interior veseel bytilting the breaker upside down in adeterminedmanner,and,hence,turninzitiurther into its normal position.

I EMILE BCHAIR.

